Just bought a very nice MY99 5 Door Turbo, pretty much standard except for, Black Diamond pads and disc's, Prodrive quickshiftand TSL back box, what can I do for easy BHP which won't burn too much of a big hole in my pocket.


Cheers


Sparky

Dawes. Cheapest thing to have to gain Bhp..

Sparky, get yourself a downpipe and mid section. This are the best mods you could make.

Dan

got to agree with DannyF

Decat it

Just done that on my '99 5dr. Goes better, strangely enough :)
I do have to start braking earlier though, since I get up to higher speeds on the straights.

Tek next; then better brakes are probably essential and a large dose of driver training.

De-cat downpipe + Ecutek (2 or 3) + boost meter = :D

For a cheap power increase, a dawes cannot be beaten. It's under £100, takes less than an hour to fit (though you WILL need a boost gauge fitted too) and will generally improve the cars on boost driveablity and performance.

BUT!

If you are intending to go beyond that later, it is better to invest in an exhaust and airfilter, both of which will improve the driveabiliyt of the car on AND off boost, and spool the turbo quicker, but will see more marginal gains in the short term, as the ECU will still be in control of the boost (and the ECU in standard form is a bit miserly).

Once you have got the breathing sorted (will set you back abot £500-£1000 depending what you buy) you can get your ECU remapped (EcuTek 2.5 or whatever) to take advantage of your existing mods, and to allow you to only use good grade petrol and you will see a big power hike and massively improved driveability.

What is a dawes?

This is a Dawes device: http://www.performanceexhausts.net/Boost.html

You will need a Boost gauge and it is advisable to monitor the fuel/air ratio(AFR) too!
It will up the boost the engine runs, but only up to the ECU's preset limit!!!!


A downpipe and mid for the exhaust shouldn't cost more than £350 + fitting and a panel filter is about £50.

Iain.

Just a Boost Controller isen't it? My Boost is at a factory setting at the mo, and I don't know what that is, what can I put it up to without doing the engine in? Also what BHP, can I safely expect with this mod?


Cheers



Sparky

Boost control on the scoobies is a bit more complicated than that;)

Suffice to say, the standard ECU map gives you different amounts of boost in different circumstances.

A dawes overrides all that, and gives you pretty much the same amount of boost always (sometimes a bit more in the cold weather!) which means the car 'picks up' quicker when it comes on boost, and you can add a little more boost than the ECU would normally give you. However, depending on what software version the ECU has, it will limit the amount of extra boost you can add. If the ECU decides the engine has more boost than it will allow, it cuts the fuel, and the car will feel like it hit a brick wall. This is (of course) to be avoided. Typically, I believe most people run their boost at around 1Bar before fuel cutr becomes a problem. IF you decide to remove the fuel cut to acheieve more boost, you really need to remap the ECU, rendering the dawes a little obselete.

This is a gross over-simplification....(and others are more than welcome to explain things better) but should give you a picture of what tuning you can do in the short and longer term.